Hundreds of thousands of cases to be examined by commission for combating Communism

The commission for studying and assessing the consequences of the totalitarian Communist regime in Moldova has to analyze hundreds of thousands of cases stored in different state archives, the commission's secretary Mihai Tasca said in a news conference on January 18, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. According to Tasca, the archives of the Ministry of the Interior include about 170,000 cases, while of the Security and Information Service – about 80,000 cases. Some of these cases are classed as secret. Under the law on the state secret, the documents protected by this law remain secret during at most 25 years. But it is not clear if it is 25 years of the adoption of the law or of the moment when these documents are stored. There are many unexamined archives, Tasca said. The commission's vice president Igor Casu said the commission will make a study of about 400-500 pages. Afterward, it will prepare a report and will publish the most important documents concerning the Communist regime in the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic. Casu denied the reports that the commission is political in character, as representatives of the Communists Party and a part of the press said. He stressed it was not empowered to take decision, but only to draw up related documents. Historian Ion Varta, who is a member of the commission, said many books and studies have been published on this topic so far and this shows that the atrocities are unmeasurable. The historians in Ukraine conducted hundreds or even thousands of investigations and hold proofs of the genocide committed under the Communist rule. “We cannot give verdicts, but as far as we known the crimes committed in Moldova are proportional to those committed in Ukraine,” Varta said. The commission was set up under a decree issued by Acting President Mihai Ghimpu. It is composed of historians, writers, politologists and philologists. Doctor of History Gheorghe Cojocaru was named chairman of the commission. The commission will periodically inform the society about its work, make a study, compile a collection of documents and prepare an analytical report on the historical, political and legal assessment of the totalitarian Communist regime. By June 1, it is to submit proposals over the future study.